Ever since it was announced that Disney was entering negotiations to purchase the film rights to properties belonging to Fox, Marvel fans have been excited by the possibility of seeing the X-men and the Fantastic Four (currently under the ownership of Fox) join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Even do there’s still no official announcement that Marvel Studios has officially begun development on movies, and/or TV shows, based on those characters, fans now have a hint on just when that might happen, courtesy of a tweet by Variety editor and host of Variety‘s PLAYBACK Podcast Kristopher Tapley. In the tweet, he shared a quote from Kevin Feige, who he interviewed in the podcast, when asked about having the go-ahead to start developing projects based on Fox-owned Marvel properties:

Has Feige received the go-ahead to start developing stories based on Fox-owned Marvel properties? “No but we’ve been told it’s looking very, very good and could happen in the first six months of next year.”

This not only means that Marvel may start development on X-Men and Fantastic Four-based projects very soon but also that there will be no tease for the characters in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame, as many people had speculated. But knowing Marvel Studios’ and Kevin Feige’s knack for planning ahead, it’s likely that they’ve already devised a way to include those characters in their cinematic universe.

Are you excited to see the X-Men and the Fantastic Four on the MCU? Share your thoughts in the comments and stay tuned for more updates on the Disney-Fox deal. And for more Marvel-related articles, be sure to follow Geek Motivation (@GEEKMOTIVATION) and me (@Miguel42Coelho) and help us change the world, one geek at a time.